You Can! Inspiring Women In Business
When to Quit Your Business—and When to Keep Going
Fri, 02 May 2025
Thinking about quitting your business? Feeling burnt out, stuck, or wondering if it’s time to get a “real job”? You’re not alone—and this episode of The YouCan Podcast will help you figure out what to do next.In this honest, no-fluff conversation, we dive deep into the reasons why entrepreneurs and small business owners consider giving up—and how to know whether it’s a temporary setback or truly time to walk away. If you’re struggling to make money, battling burnout, or questioning your passion, this episode is packed with clarity and direction.🎯 In this episode, you’ll learn:The difference between burnout and misalignmentWhy most business problems can be fixed with the right supportThe two valid reasons it might be time to quit your businessWhat to do if you're facing financial stress or loss of motivationHow to reset, pivot, or move forward with confidenceWhether you’re a coach, consultant, course creator, or online service provider, this episode is your permission slip to stop pushing blindly and start making empowered choices in your business journey.💡 Perfect for:Entrepreneurs thinking about quitting, business owners facing burnout, and anyone who wants to build a sustainable business that actually feels good.🔁 Loved this episode?Tap Follow, leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review, and share it with a fellow entrepreneur who needs to hear this today. The more people who find The YouCan Podcast, the more we can all build businesses that work for us—not the other way around.💡 Need Help Or To Talk Things Through? drop me a message: [email protected] or book a quick chat here: Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/you-can-inspiring-women-in-business/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Chapter 1: When is it time to quit your business?
It's done as an announcement after the time. And that is around. Is it time to give up on your business? Is it time to give up on your business dream? Is it time to say, you know what? I quit. I walk away. I'm going to do something different or I'm going to absolutely change what I am doing. I'm not going to stick with my current approach and my current business model.
Now, before we dive into this episode, I want you to know that this one, it might hit close to home, but I promise this isn't going to be a doom and gloom episode. It's about getting clarity because sometimes what feels like a need to give up is actually just a sign you need to tweak things. Things aren't working as they are.
Chapter 2: What are the signs of burnout versus misalignment?
There is no need to explode, press the I'm done button and give up on everything and destroy everything that you've built. Okay, so let's talk about that difference. So to start with guys, let's be honest. There are so many reasons that might make you feel like you want to throw in the towel. Okay. You're tired. You're not making the money you hoped for your latest launch.
flopped your family and friends don't understand they're not supporting you you feel like you're constantly on but on it doing stuff in the business but you're getting nowhere you're kind of like feel like that but kind of busy fool okay if you've ever cried into a laptop or googled jobs near me at 2am in the morning you are not alone we have all been there we've all thought you know what am i doing every single business owner i know has had a moment or a number of moments like that where they've wondered would it be easy to just walk away you know
Chapter 3: How can temporary feelings affect your decision to quit?
Is this too much? Have I taken on too much? Can I do this? But here's the truth. Most of those feelings, they are temporary. Yeah, they don't last. It's one of those things that you tend to have a real challenge and a real downtime and then you have a massive breakthrough. It is genuinely such a roller coaster. And that's all part of that entrepreneurial roller coaster.
And those challenges, those times when you think, gosh, I really don't think I can do this. They can be fixed. So let's talk about those times where it's not about quitting. That wouldn't be the solution. It's actually an opportunity to reassess. Okay. It's those, I want to give it moments and why they might not actually mean that it's time to walk away. Okay. You're not making any money now.
That is a really common one. I hear that all the time. People come to me because I can help you with lead generation and converting those leads into paying customers. So especially for the first year or two, it's a very regular problem that people have. And in all honesty,
There are businesses that I've worked with who have been going 10 plus years who are still struggling with inconsistent income because they have inconsistent leads, okay? It just means you haven't found your groove yet. It might be that your message needs tweaking, your offer needs tweaking, you need to look and reassess your audience, you've gone too broad, okay?
Money problems are solvable as long as you're willing to adjust and as long as time hasn't run out on that and I will come to that in a little bit, okay?
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Chapter 4: What should you do if you're facing financial challenges?
you want to to face money challenges head on you don't want to keep burying your head in the sand and hoping things will change but keep doing the same things and and that would be my kind of key word of warning there is if you're finding that you're not making enough money then something needs to change plugging along doing the same thing is unlikely to give you a different outcome okay
Chapter 5: How can exhaustion impact your business decisions?
I know that's vague. I know that's a very general thing to say and get help, reach out, reach out to me, reach out to other business mentors. Okay. And get your, get that support and get that sense check. Okay, you're exhausted, you're burnt out, okay? Burnout is not a reason to give up, okay? Now, I'm not talking extreme burnout, can't get out of bed.
I'm talking about when you are exhausted, okay? You haven't had those boundaries in place. Everything's merged together. You are busy from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, okay? You're maybe doing too much. You're doing too much. You're taking on too much yourself. Okay. Maybe you're not being as strategic as you could be.
Maybe you're not using the resources around you as much as you could. Okay. These are all fixable. Okay. Again, you don't need to give up. You need to rest. You need to restructure.
okay it's an it's an indication that it's not sustainable the vast majority of people come to me because their business is not sustainable it's either because it's not sustainable because it's not making enough money or it's not sustainable because it's running them ragged and they know that they can't keep this up in the long term okay you need rest you need to restructure you need to regroup and you potentially need some help okay to see the wood for the trees and to figure out how to move forward and get those systems and processes and structures in place
Okay. You may feel like no one cares. Okay. You've posted, you've shared, maybe even launched something and got zero response. Crickets, tumbleweed. Okay. That is deflating. It's demoralizing, but it doesn't mean your business idea is a bad idea. Okay. Often it's fact of visibility. So, you know, there hasn't been enough. The volume is, it's frightening. Okay.
The amount of volume needed to get people's attention, particularly online, particularly in this day and age, Again, it's very fixable, but you need to dial in with more messaging, with better messaging, being in a better place, so maybe you're not hitting your target audience, posting where you are, posting at the time that you are, posting the information that you are posting.
But it's all very fixable, it's just understanding, okay, what is it that is misfiring here? Yeah, it's a misfiring, it's not a, this is a really, really bad idea. Having worked with so many people who are like, you know what, I've launched this, I've done this, I've done that, and nobody cares, nobody's interested. There has been...
Probably out of, I don't know, tens of people, you're probably looking at like 50, 60 people that I've worked with, with that exact problem. They've come to me, I've done this and nobody cares. There's probably been less than 1%, absolutely less than 1%. have actually needed to relook at what they're doing and the core of what they're offering.
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Chapter 6: What to do if no one is responding to your business efforts?
Yes, there might be some tweaks, there might be some messaging, but fundamentally they're providing the same thing. They're just packaging it, looking at it differently, messaging it differently, putting it out to a different audience in a different way. So don't feel like that is a reason to walk away just because no one is interested at this moment in time. It takes time.
Okay, it takes time to build an audience. It takes time to have those people's ear and them interested and ready to respond, okay? And then they talk around like comparison being, you know, the thief of joy. They talk around it, you know, being such a source of problems. And it's because it is, okay, comparing yourself to others.
Spoiler alert, they probably have the same doubts, the same rough months, the same meltdowns. They don't let everyone else enjoying those moments, they don't share those moments. What you see online, what you see of somebody else's life, what they choose to tell you is curated, okay? Are you going out there and telling people right now that you think you might have enough and that you're done?
I very much doubt it, okay? So you're not behind, you are on your own path, okay?
Chapter 7: How does comparison affect entrepreneurs?
you are on your own path now that doesn't mean that you're going to stick behind that person that always going to be that step ahead of you it just means that you're going through your own journey okay if you're going through a rough patch then you know maybe it is just that a rough patch that doesn't mean it's time to quit it might just be time to regroup get support okay look at your options and and reassess what it is that you should be doing
and where you should be going with it, okay? I would strongly advise you to get support from somebody who has been there, done that, okay? That might be somebody that you know in business who you can talk to. You might not be in a position where you're like, you're great, Sarah, thanks for the whole suggestion of a mentor, right? I will do a 15-minute conversation with anybody, okay?
I will try and help and guide you in the right direction. OK, because I want to help as many people as possible to develop in their business and to have successful businesses. So and I'm not alone with that. You know, decent people, they will get on the phone with you. They will get on a call with you. They will chat to you and share with you their thoughts on your situation.
At the end of the day, it is your business and it is your choice. But there is lots of people out there who can guide you. But find somebody that, you know, whose opinion you value and talk to them.
Chapter 8: What is the importance of patience in building a business?
The more opinions you tend to get, you get a little snippet from Auntie Jane and then another one from, you know, your next door neighbor, then another one from a business owner of a friend of a friend. Then you start to get, you know, it starts to get diluted. It starts to get confusing. Find somebody that you really trust. Speak to them and find out what they think. OK.
Now, that kind of leads me on to. why you might want to walk away, okay? There are only two real reasons to walk away, and actually neither of them mean you have to give up on having a business. It may just be a case of reshuffling your current business and getting it to look different, or it may just be a pressing the pause button, okay?
The two reasons are you are facing immediate financial hardship, okay? What I mean by that is if you keep that business going, it means you can't pay the rent, you can't put food on the table, support your family, you need to pause. This doesn't mean you failed, doesn't mean your dream is over, it's dead in the water.
It means that you need to make a smart decision to stabilize your lifestyle, okay, before you start to rebuild. Some of the biggest problems that I've seen in a business have come from people trying to draw money out of a business which isn't in a position to support that yet. OK, that's looking at your business like a host, like a source of resources. It's like pulling things from that resource.
It's like picking strawberries off a strawberry plant before they are ready. You're going to run out of strawberries if you're not then giving it a rest, allowing them to mature.
you can get a job and still be an entrepreneur you're not failing many successful business owners had to press pause and come back stronger later that doesn't make you a quitter that makes you responsible it makes you resilient and actually it puts your business in a much better position i really enjoyed working with people who are currently working a job and setting up their business on the side the people who are setting up their business
Pure, 100% all in. I get why you do it. And for some people, they need that sense of fear and that pressure. But from my point of view, it scares me.
And I know straight away that they're going to have limited resources to work with because they haven't got the finances available because what they're bringing into the business, what they're making, they're having to withdraw to cover their own financial costs.
and that can really strangle as i've said in a previous podcast your business and your business is growth so for the sake of your business sometimes some people look for funding some people look to self-fund you may need to go and get a job and get money coming in so that you can actually support the growth of your business and make your business better in the longer term the other reason for walking away rather temporarily or altogether
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